Twenty Inspiring Signs From Young Protesters at the March for Our Lives

On Saturday, March 24, a passionate crowd of over 100,000 turned out for the Denver edition of the March for Our Lives. Youths created the event to support common-sense gun legislation. To provide a venue where citizens of all ages could stand up and be counted. To make sure the country and its political representatives hear the protests against the culture of gun extremism. To inspire. To say, once and for all, that enough is enough.

And when people protest, they bring signs. At other marches, these tend to vary widely in content and tone; some are serious, but some can be funny. Nerd-tastic, even. At Saturday’s March for Our Lives, the signs were heartfelt and poignant and indignant and reasoned — just what you might expect from a new generation working to make sure its voice is fully and clearly heard. Here are twenty of the most affecting messages from Colorado youth.

1. The Children of Your Country Are Calling You to Action Two of these young women gave up tickets to see Hamilton in order to march. If you don't understand the gravity of that sacrifice, if you can't see how this proves their commitment, then you don't understand the power of Lin-Manuel Miranda.

7. A Life Is More Important Than Your Shooting Hobby To be fair, the rational folks who enjoy shooting as a hobby probably agree with this sentiment, since two-thirds of Americans support strict gun control. But the sign does put the comparison into effective contrast, doesn't it?

10. Students' Rights Are Human RightsLet me help you with that sign on the right: Fortnite is a shootout-and-survival game for various video-game platforms. The sign was yet another signal that kids can easily separate video game violence from the real thing — and claiming otherwise is just a bullshit smokescreen meant to obfuscate the real problem.

18. This Isn't What Our Forefathers Had in MindThis was a common theme for some of the more historically minded in the crowd. The Second Amendment fans among the NRA faithful like to ignore the "well-regulated" language, which was included even back in the ball-and-musket days of yore.

SUCCESS!

20. Who's Next? The march was all about not having to keep asking this question.

Teague Bohlen is a writer, novelist and professor at the University of Colorado Denver, where he serves as fiction editor for Copper Nickel and faculty adviser for the student newspaper, The Sentry. His first novel, The Pull of the Earth, won the Colorado Book Award for Literary Fiction in 2007; his textbook The Snarktastic Guide to College Success came out in 2014.